Across the UK today, people are waking up to seriously icy conditions, having to defrost their windscreens to go about their business quickly.
But the perils don’t stop there, and if you have to get into your car to go to work, you may feel unsafe because of the conditions. Thankfully, @autotraderuk have shared their “top tips for winter driving to make sure you’re setting off safely,” including what to do with your car if you skid on ice.
Of course, when it is icy, you may want to leave your car at home and opt for public transport or work from home where you can. But if you need to go somewhere, it’s important to be clued in how to operate the vehicle.
READ MORE: There’s a clever detail on car dashboard that ‘only 5% of people know about’
Auto Trader warned people that when they’re “driving in snow” or ice, it’s important to “leave a stopping distance that is at least 10 times greater than normal,” so that your vehicle has a chance to actually stop in the conditions.
They also shared that you should “avoid braking where possible as normal tyres have a lower grip on icy roads”. So, how are you supposed to decelerate your car, you may wonder. They share that you should “change gears” instead of pressing the brakes.
However, if you do find yourself in a situation where “your car starts skidding on icy roads,” they say under no circumstances should you “take your hands off the steering wheel”. What they do recommend, however, is to “steer your car in the direction of the skid to correct it”.
Icy Road Safety shares that “the higher the speed, the more difficult it is to correct a slide,” so it’s important to alter your speeds to suit the conditions you’re driving in.
The experts also echo that braking is the worst thing that you can do when travelling on an icy road, sharing that “braking can not only trigger a slide, it will make a slide worse” as the wheels need to be turning “freely” for slide correction to work.
They also follow Auto Trader’s advice regarding correcting the slide: “If the back of your car slides to the right, turn the wheel to the right. ” As the car “straightens out,” you should also “straighten the steering wheel” accordingly.
Icy Road Safety also shared that it’s important not to panic when this happens and to avoid overcorrecting the vehicle. This is because “overcorrecting can send the car rotating faster than a steering can counter, and the car will spin out.”